Today I sat by the Keswick River and painted two paintings of the same dead tree from a different angle than previously. I wanted to try two different ways to paint the same subject matter but I find that they both pretty much look the same. I'm finding it hard to break out of my old habits.

With one painting, I wet the paper and waited until the gloss disappeared and then painted the background. I let it dry and did the tree and other detail work. With the other painting I just started right in putting colour on the paper and painted the sky, river and background trees. I let it dry and painted in the detail. You would never know that I approached them in different ways. Oh, well.

I'm still using the triad of Cerulean Blue, Indian Red, and Yellow Ochre.

(Back to Dead Tree...)